Ideas Become Real at the Point of Action...

New Website Re-design with emphasis on my Artist's Life....sharing...sending out the Ripple....

www.wordsbysusie.com

namaste

Sacred in the Ordinary, Installation #8: Tommy Turkey Trotting and Tree Sittin'

The past week has been amazing.  Warmer weather arrived in Western New York, the sunshine has smiled upon us day after day, and nature has begun to celebrate.  Not only are we starting to see signs of leaves budding out on some of the trees and shrubs...but, oh, my...our little feathered friends are doing their own style of "budding out."  Romance is in the air.  Nests are being cozied up for the arrival of new babies.  AND ... one big Tom Turkey has been strutting his stuff.

While working in our home office several days ago, a sudden movement outside the window caught my eye...I glanced right...and there HE was...Tom, Tom the Turkey Tom...just strolling across our back lawn.  

Then days later, while sipping on a morning cup of coffee and chatting over the phone with my brother, Gary, another sudden movement outside the dining room window caught my eye.  In the far distance, downhill from where our home sits, two giant birds were lumbering through the air toward a copse of tall pine trees.  I hopped up and exclaimed to Gary--"oh, my gosh, wait...what is that?  what are those birds?"  

As I took a closer look -- I realized I was watching two large turkeys flying to roost atop the pine trees.  I told Gary I'd have to talk with him later.  I grabbed my camera and darted out the front door 

to try to capture this moment. 

Here is the little story as it unfolded.

One of the turkeys took his (or was it a "her"?) place 

atop a 30' pine tree...there he was...just sitting...

and gazing to the east...

and then he began to cluck-cluck (or however you'd describe that sound turkeys make) and look around...

slowly he craned his long neck and looked west...

and then he cluck-clucked some more, and turned his gaze 

straight at me...

uh-oh...I had been spotted!

There we were...the two of us, locked in a gaze...

neither daring to move...both just gazing, gazing. 

Then...with a thwump-thwump-thwump...

up he rose off the peak of that pine tree. 

Into the air he flew, following a half-circle arc.  

With wings spread, he flew in my direction. 

In my excitement, I snapped only the onset of his flight...

but the joy is that he flew directly overhead--

only about 15 feet above me...

and I swear, I could hear the 

th-wump th-wump th-wump of air being forced outward 

in doppler ripples by his wings as he flew out of sight... JOY!

Fly, Tommy Turkey, Fly!

Art Installation #1: Cardinal in Flight

I am pleased to announce that my art work has been selected
for inclusion in the Ashwood Artisans Gallery 

(www.ashwoodartisansgallery.com) 

in East Aurora, New York, and in

the West Seneca Art Society Spring 2012 Fine Art Show 

at the Burchfield Nature & Art Center
(www.burchfieldnac.org) in West Seneca, New York.  

Connected with each of my paintings there is an "aha" moment, 

a snippet of a story, or perhaps one single word
that sets the painting in motion.  

The story behind this first art installation arose from a recent morning as I watched ten cardinals--five males, five females--play outside the sunroom window.  It was a rare sunny winter's morning for us in Western New York.  And just as the surprise of sunshine on that particular morning lit my soul on fire, so it must have done the same for these cardinals.  

They played.  They chattered.  They hopped and flitted.  And they skimmed the rolling landscape like ruby-red bottle rockets.  They made me happy.  They gave me energy that morning, 

and I wanted to capture what I saw in my mind's eye.  

The final creation:

"Cardinal in Flight"

30" x 40" 

acrylics on stretched canvas

Soul Food: Gathering of Dear Friends at Jo Ann's

This morning I woke to thoughts that were circling around the very idea of "Soul".  How do we define soul?  Why do we have a soul?  What happens in our daily lives to remind us about the essence of soul?  Don't ask me why those were the first thoughts that washed like waves upon my waking thoughts, but they were, and I let them ripple about a bit before tossing back the comforter.

And then...after getting out of bed, I stood for a long moment at the open bedroom window.  I stood there, gazing out at the thicket of bramble bushes that obscure our clear and direct line of vision into the woods--woods that invite our new adventures.  Strange though, instead of seeing thorns and briars and the menacing arching branches of the invasive Multiflora Rose that have rum rampant over the many years before we became the new stewards of this land--well, instead of seeing these prickly invaders as blemishes, this morning, they remind me that I believe everything on the planet has a soul.

I will skip the teeny details of the next 20 minutes--coffee with Jack, putting away last night's dinner dishes, feeding Galaia, opening the windows--and dance on over to my NOW.  Now I sit at the computer thinking about what I wish to write about today.  Now I smile at the sound of the geese who are honking their way across the sky.  Now I listen to the woodpecker who is ham-ham-hammering a tree in distress.  Now I watch the curtain that is billowing in the cool breeze that filters through the open transom window.

And in that ballet of small Now-Occurrences, my soul inhales and opens up, and I see the faces of some of the most beautiful women and men who are part of my Soul-Story. Who long ago took up residence in my soul and set up their own little home in my heart.  Who still, to this day, appear in my Soul-Story without as much as a little notice--yes, every so softly and silently they simply appear, floating in as if to say, "I'm here...just dropping by for a little visit."

And so it is that I wish to see their eyes again, shining and happy.
And so it is that I wish to send out my love
in a whsiper to each one of these beautiful souls.

Namaste.